Answer to Question #240951 in Sociology for Lee

Question

Feminist development theory has in various guises, been the main advocate for placing gender as a category and issue on the development agenda. Compare and Contrast the Postmodernism and Development (PAD) and Women and Development (WAD). (100)

Answer 1

Feminism

When we place Liberal feminism in the context of the liberal tradition, we can see that

the historically liberal values of independence, opportunity and individualism are sought after,

and that the theory is rooted in early philosophies that prioritize equality and liberty. Indeed, the

overarching goal of liberal feminism is to “create a just and compassionate society in which

freedom thrives and gendered inequalities are eliminated.” However, successive critiques have

significantly eroded liberal feminism's theoretical ability to achieve such a goal since the 1980s.

Liberal feminism's ability to address gender inequalities on a global scale has been shattered,

according to critics.

Postmodernism may provide the best elucidation of this argument. Derrida, Foucault, and

Butler's approach fundamentally rejects liberal feminism's modernity in favor of a perspective

that refuses to adopt a normative position grounded in a modernist structure of privileged ethical

assumptions and claims. This ‘disbelief in metanarratives' has called into question traditional

epistemological assumptions about knowledge and truth, particularly in terms of how knowledge

can be grasped and whose knowledge is valued. In terms of development practices, such analysis

revealed the misplaced position of ‘women' in understanding gendered inequality, resulting in

the movement of skepticism.